Independency

It feels like everywhere you turn these days, there's another zombie themed something-or-another being shoved in your face. Personally, I blame The Walking Dead since it seems as if the entire pop culture theme arrived en masse when it debuted on AMC in 2010. In gaming, we've seen more than a few zombie-themed RPGs and pseudo-RPGs lately. Not to be left behind, MMOs have embraced the undead apocalypse too. Big studios and indies have taken to the new genre with wild abandon.

What sets Crowfall apart for me though isn't the people. We've seen popular names from gaming history come back to varying levels of success on Kickstarter. It isn't the snappy video or the disappointment I may be harboring over 2014s AAA releases... It is the look forward.

This leads me to my weekend Kickstarter discovery. While doing my weekly browse through Kickstarter I came across a hardcore sci-fi space MMORPG that has raised $10,000CAD. The game is called Nebula Online.

If life were an MMO that MMO would be called Identity. For those who don’t know it may seem like the creators of Identity, Asylum Entertainment came out of nowhere, but in fact they have a lot of experience with the modern sandbox game. Asylum Entertainment is to this point best known for their Arma III mod Asylum’s Altis Life.

What defines an indie game? This is a question that has many answers depending on who you ask. To some it’s indie if it has a tiny budget and non-traditional funding source. To others a game can be considered indie if the studio that made it was put together specifically to make that game. While others will disqualify a game from being indie simply because it has a major industry veteran at the helm. What indie means is different for every person.

While going on my weekly browse through Kickstarter I noticed an area of the video games subdivision that I had never noticed before. A section that boasts there are over 100 games on Steam that were once on Kickstarter. This is a great thing for Kickstarter to brag about! Kickstarter has made some amazing games possible. Of course most of them aren’t MMOs. Kickstarter has been a great platform for non-MMO indie games.

Back in 2012 there was this little MMO darling that was loved by many, one that I personally wanted to try out but never got the chance to. That gem of a game was called Glitch. MMO bloggers that I follow spoke nothing but praise and the announcement of the shutdown hit fans hard. Thankfully, unlike many MMOs that shut down Tiny Speck was able to put the art and code from Glitch into the public domain.

In the ashes of City of Heroes the seeds of three spiritual successors were planted. The Phoenix Project now known as City of Titans, Heroes and Villains, and Valiance Online. Two years on and all three are barely little sprouts poking their heads out of the dirt, MMOs do take a long time to develop after all. But it is that time of year where they’re pushed into our thoughts once more. How are they doing you may be asking? That’s a very good question…

Novus Aeterno is described by its team as a "seamless AAA MMORTS" that is aimed squarely at fans of both MMO and RTS genres. We caught up with Taitale Studios CEO Nick Nieuwoudt to talk about Novus Aeterno. See what he's got to say before leaving your impressions in the comments.

Too many abbreviations? We're talking about a little question and answer about the KickStarter for Trials of Ascension. Still not sure what Trials of Ascension is? You'll know much more after reading today's Independency. Head through the jump and then tell us what you think in the comments.

What would happen if our virtual worlds and our real worlds collided? You can find out by reading this week's Independency and our own predictions of what just might happen. Have a few ideas of your own? Share them in the comments!

In today's Independency column, we take a look at WorldAlpha, a collaborative, free to play, real-world style browser game that isn't quite as scary as it sounds. Check out our preview and mini-interview before chatting WorldAlpha up in the comments.

Fez II and Phil Fish have inadvertently created an internet storm. In our latest Independency column, we take a look at the controversy and offer some pithy advice about the subject. Read on and then leave us your thoughts in the comments.

It's been a few months since the three-part Independency interview series with Divergence Online's creator, Ethan Casner. If you've been wondering what the team's been up to, we've got you covered. See what's in the works and more in our latest Independency column. Tell us what you thin in the comments.

This week, Lisa Jonte takes a look at a project that is technically an independent one, though more about a book about an MMO. Find out more about PWNED. Have you ever had a novel idea about the gaming world? Let us know in the comments.